Guns

Four creative members from the group Goodby, Silverstein, & Partners teamed up to create a tongue-in-cheek "Bribe the Senate" gun control campaign that would encourage on-the-fence politicians to vote in favor on gun control bills. Their plan was simple: use crowdfunding to raise donation money that they could use to bribe politicians.

The problem? The whole idea is illegal. Not a little bit illegal, either – going through with their plan would likely earn jail time for everybody involved.

"Honestly, we started this whole thing with the intent to fundraise for the bribes," said Simon Bruyn, one of four founders. "But the lawyers were very adamant that this was go-to-jail illegal. Not just for us, but for anybody who donated. So we had to change our approach late in the game."

Emil Tiismann, another founder, blasted the current political system.

"We get it. Bribes are bad," Tiismann said. "You can't pay a politician to change their vote. Next time we will form a proper political lobbying organization so that we can collect unlimited cash in order to have a meaningful political conversation with our elected officials where we strongly express our opinions. Please don't send us to jail for this. We'd hate to have to share a cell with a mentally ill killer who bought his murder weapon at a gun show without a background check."

It is a rather ironic turn of events for these gun control supporters. On the one hand, bribing senators in order to get them to vote a certain way is clearly illegal. On the other hand, that is pretty much what lobbyists do all of the time anyway. So, why can’t the one group that is actually being honest about what is going on get away with it?

What are your thoughts? Do you think that this legal snag highlights the hypocrisy of the current political system and the corruption of U.S. politicians? Do you think that these creatives have overstepped their bounds by attempting to break the law?

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